<x-tad-bigger>IDD: ISRAELI DENIAL DYSFUNCTION
AVIGAIL ABARBANEL, PEACE PALESTINE - When an individual, a group or an
entire society live with a dark secret or are in denial about something
important in their past, they cannot experience peace. It is simply
impossible to live a 'normal' or peaceful life on a foundation of lies
and secrecy. Denying the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians in 1948,
trying to not think about the consequences of long years of brutal
occupation, and just wishing for it all to go away is no more than a
fantasy.
In family therapy there is an accepted principle that unless serious
injustices are addressed, there cannot be real peace. Families that
protect dark secrets always pay a heavy price. I watched Israeli
intellectuals on TV engage in genuine discussion trying to analyse and
understand why things are so bad in Israel. They raised every possible
reason for the situation other than the most obvious one - Israel's
history. It was excruciating to watch but also familiar. I have never
seen a society so steeped in denial as Israeli society.
The entire spectrum of Israeli politics is in denial about Israel's
history and this is why I do not have much faith in the Israeli left.
The handful that are not in denial like Dr Ilan Pappe who visited
Australia last year, or Dr Uri Davis, exist outside this spectrum. Their
research into the events of 1948 and the circumstances surrounding the
birth of the state of Israel is not discussed on public television and
is not in Israeli history books. The average Israeli does not even know
who they are. Although published by reputable publishers like Cambridge
University Press, Dr Pappe's books have so far been refused publication
in Hebrew. The reason offered is that they lack academic merit.
The way most Israelis perceive their own history is as if they have
always been the weak victim. The question of whether or not it was
morally right or even wise to create a state at the expense of another
people is never raised. No one in the mainstream questions the validity
of democracy in a country where the right for citizenship is based on
race (you can only become an Israeli citizen if you can prove that your
mother is Jewish).
When Israelis engage in 'peace talks' it is important to understand
their basic position. They have no real interest in a solution that goes
to the core of their problem. They are like an individual who wants his
or her symptoms to go away but refuses to do anything about their real
causes. A wish 'to be left alone' is not much of a basis for a
sustainable peace, at least not without another act of ethnic cleansing.
Five million Palestinians are there to remind Israel of its past, and
they are not going anywhere.
If a day comes, and I hope it does, when Israelis decide to stop living
in denial, they will have to realize that real peace will only come
through justice. Justice in this context means one thing, that the ideal
of an exclusively Jewish state at the cost of an entire people might
have to be abandoned. Only a bi-national state and a right of return for
the Palestinian refugees will come close enough to rectifying some of
the injustices committed in 1948 and since. Having been ethnically
cleansed, this is also what the Palestinians are entitled to under
international law and common human decency.
This could be Israel's atonement. It will also be Israel's opportunity
to free itself from carrying this burden of guilt that I believe is
making their lives and the lives of the Palestinians a nightmare. Yes,
it will be a challenge. But it will offer a possibility of real and
sustainable peace both for Israelis and for Palestinians, possibly for
the entire region. Continuing with the mentality and policy of denial
will lead nowhere, and will continue to cost the lives and well being of
many more people and communities.
[Avigail Abarbanel is a former Israeli and a former Staff Sergeant in
the Israeli military. She is a psychotherapist/counsellor in private
practice in Canberra Australia and an activist for Palestinian rights.] </x-tad-bigger>
